Latest Stories Tagged: Guinea

In addition to physical health problems, the virus can have damaging psychological and social effects on survivors, which has now become a major concern among health workers and humanitarian aid organizations. Survivors often have difficulty reintegrating into society after recovery due to the stigma surrounding the disease and face social rejection by their peers.

Researchers working in Guinea have developed an experimental Ebola vaccine that they say is highly effective. But it has been a long time coming, and groups like the World Health Organization have admitted the need for emergency response reform before another crisis strikes.

Missteps dogged the early days of the Ebola response, with international groups relying on an untested government to combat the epidemic. "Letting the countries take the lead" is standard operating procedure for health agencies operating abroad.

The US responded to Ebola quickly, and succeeded in stamping out the small number of known cases. Now that the last Ebola patient in the country has been cleared, one doctor says it's time to refocus on West Africa.

British chemist Anthony England was at home with plenty of time on his hands during the Ebola outbreak, reading the ongoing coverage and reactions. But the errors he found online infuriated him, leading him to make a satirical Ebola map that's gone viral around the world.

Scientists are still trying to figure out when and how the Ebola virus first emerged in humans. Many believe that fruit bats are the so-called “reservoir hosts,” but that remains to be definitively proven. Science writer David Quammen ventured deep into the forest of central Africa to try to find out for his latest book “Ebola: The Natural and Human History of a Deadly Virus.”

When it comes to containing an outbreak like Ebola, anticipating where it might spread next is crucial. Until somewhat recently, however, the only way to do that was through untimely census records. But with the proliferation of so-called "big data," epidemiologists can track in real time where West Africans are headed — and where they might be spreading the disease.

Diseases that can move between animals and humans — called zoonotic diseases — make up a majority of infectious diseases that humans can get, scientists say. So it's no wonder that out-of-control logging in West Africa has likely aided the spread of Ebola.

Eid al-Adha is a big occasion for Muslims around the globe. But for any part of the Muslim world that's staring down the barrel of Ebola right now — like Guinea, the country where the current outbreak began — the parties are muted.